Outdoor game, new rules spark wardrobe makeovers
The NHL’s new, tighter goalie pants apparently have brought out the inner hipster in Matt Murray.
“It feels like you’re wearing skinny jeans, to be honest,” he said Thursday.
Murray has been wearing the new, streamlined pants — which will be mandatory for all goalies starting this weekend — for a few weeks now, and said he hasn’t had much issue with them.
The change is an attempt from the league to increase scoring without significantly changing the game. Instead of bulky, one-sizefits-most goalie pants, the new ones are custom-fit to each individual player.
As a result, they’re tighter in the waist and thighs than what Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury are used to.
“There’s really no give to it,” Murray said. “In practice, pucks hurt a little bit more just because there’s not that cushion on the impact. Definitely a lot tighter, but I think they look pretty much the same. They don’t feel much skinnier [in terms of width], they just feel tighter.”
The one downside is less padding around the inner thigh and groin area, which can be an issue if you take a puck or a stick there in a scrum around the net.
“Stuff hurts a little more in practice,” Murray said. “If you open up and you get a tip, and it hits you somewhere in that area, it definitely hurts a lot more than it used to. I’ve had a couple of those, which is a little bit annoying. Apart from that, it’s pretty much the same.”
As far as the impact on the ice, Fleury said slightly slimmed down pants won’t change much from the goalie’s perspective.
“Plays on the post maybe,” he said. “Maybe get on there a little more, get your glove there or something.”
Murray has been wearing the new pants in games since Jan. 18 in Montreal, and in practice for weeks before that. Fleury, meanwhile, only started wearing them a few days ago and presumably try them in a game for the first time this weekend.
“A little different, right?” Fleury said. “It’s what I expected. I think it’s not too bad, though.”
Wardrobe changes II
The Penguins wore their yellow Stadium Series helmets for practice Thursday, and Murray also got a chance to break in the allblack pads he’ll wear at Heinz Field when the Penguins play the Flyers Feb. 25.
“As soon as I saw the Stadium Series jerseys, I thought they were some of the coolest that I’ve seen,” Murray said. “My very first thought was black pads would look amazing with those.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Murray has gone with the all-black look. He wore similar pads when he played for Team North America in the World Cup before the regular season began and said the look actually dates to his days in minor hockey.
“For whatever reason, once you get to junior and pro, there’s this fear of black pads for whatever reason,” Murray said.
“I really liked how it looked at the World Cup. Some guys told me they had trouble finding the puck off rebounds coming out, they’re slower to react to it, and you might get a quick whistle or two from the refs if they lose it. Everybody will tell you something different, but honestly at the end of the day, I just really like how it looks.”
Not buying it
The Penguins’ game against division rival Columbus tonight might take on added significance in the minds of media and fans, but coach Mike Sullivan isn’t buying it.
“It’s always interesting when people raise the question, ‘Well, is this the most important game of the year?’ ” Sullivan said. “My initial response is, ‘Yeah, it is. Until the next one.’ ”
Sullivan conceded that games against fellow Metropolitan teams have a bit more intensity, but said the Penguins are more concerned about how they’re playing rather than any one result.
Of course, the playoffs are just a few months away, and, at that point, the results will certainly start to matter. There’s also a good chance the Penguins and Blue Jackets will meet in the first round. Still, Sullivan said he didn’t buy too much into the idea that a team can establish any sort of mental edge over a potential playoff opponent in the regular season.
“When you look back, the experience last year, for example, we didn’t beat Tampa [Bay] in the regular season, we beat them in the playoffs,” he said.
“We had pretty good success against the [New York] Rangers in the regular season, we had a pretty good first round. I don’t know that there’s any rhyme or reason to it.”